There are many cool things about my job, but today I saw a rare convergence of three of them: The friends, the exclusives, and the access.

It occurred after weeks of watching the Facebook status updates by many of the wonderful Twilighters who’ve become my buddies over the last year-and-a-half, counting down the days to the March 21st release of the “Twilight” DVD. In the mail was a beta tape with exclusive featurettes - and one of those bonus features brought back great memories from the craziest fan-driven moment I’ve ever witnessed.

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Yep, I was there at Comic-Con 2008 to witness “Twilight” taking over pop culture. At the time, MTV News had been reporting on it for about six months, and “Twilight Tuesdays” were in full swing, but whenever I’d mention the upcoming movie to other journalists, I’d usually get blank stares. They were there to cover “Watchmen” or “The Spirit” or “Star Trek” - but once the line of Twilighters wrapped around the San Diego Convention center, Stephenie Meyer’s vampire phenomenon suddenly became a whole lot harder to ignore.

From a personal point of view, the coolest thing about this bonus footage is that I was lucky enough to stand backstage with the cast, right near that camera. I spoke with the stars and watched them all run out onstage to see 7000 fans screaming their names. Just before the part where you see Taylor Lautner going out there, he confided in me that he was very nervous. But they were all so genuinely happy to be there.

Ultimately, all the “Twilight” stars had to do was go out there and give the fans what they wanted. And, of course, they did.

In the years to come, I’m sure that far more than 7000 people will claim to have been in Hall H on that day. But for those of us who were there, we’ll never forget the ear-piercing shrieks, blushing answers and all-around awesomeness of the moment.

Stay tuned, as we’ll have a second exclusive featurette from the upcoming “Twilight” DVD to unveil tomorrow. And, as for Comic-Con? Well, with any luck we can all reunite this summer to get excited for “New Moon,” and do it all over again.